Module 4

Wettability and Capillary Pressure

Module Outline
4.1 Wettability and contact angle
4.2 Wettability and capillary pressure

2
Learning Objectives
• Recognize wettability based on contact angle
• Explain wetting and non-wetting phase concepts
• Recognize the effect of wettability on the distribution of fluid
saturations
• Define capillary pressure
• Explain the effect of wettability on capillary pressure

3
4.1 Wettability and contact angle
Wettability and Contact Angle

 Wettability is relevant to not only a porous medium containing multiple

fluids but also any solid residing in contact with two different
immiscible fluids
 When a solid material is in contact with more than one fluid, it prefers
to be wetted by one of the fluids
 Wettability is the tendency of one fluid to spread over a solid surface in
the presence of multiple immiscible fluids

5
Wettability and Contact Angle
 Place small droplets of water, mercury, and oil on a glass plate
 In all the cases, the air surrounds the glass plate and droplets of water,
mercury and oil
 Consider the air as the main fluid
 The droplets of water, mercury and oil are the secondary fluids
 Water droplet spreads over the glass surface
 The glass surface prefers to be contacted by water not by the
surrounding air
 In case of glass-air-water system, the glass is water wetted

6
Wettability and Contact Angle

Air

qgma
qgwa qgoa
Water Mercury Oil

7
Wettability and Contact Angle

 In case of mercury-air fluid pair, glass surface minimizes the contact

area with mercury and mercury tends to form a spherical shape
 In this case, glass surface favors to be in contact with air rather than
mercury
 In case of glass-air-mercury system, air is the wetting fluid
 Oil droplet on the glass surface is in the form of hemispherical globule
 In an oil-air fluid environment, the glass surface has about the same
degree of attraction to both oil and air phases

8
Wettability and Contact Angle

 Wettability is defined in terms of contact angle between the solid

surface and fluid
 In case of glass-water-air system, the contact angle, qgwa, is small and
closer to 0º
 The contact angle in glass-mercury-air arrangement, qgma, is large and
closer to 180º
 Due to glass surface’s neutrality towards oil and air fluid pair, the
contact angle from glass-oil-air combination, qgoa, is close to 90º

9
Wettability and Contact Angle

 In porous media, the fluid preferred to be in contact with rock surface

forms a thin film and surrounds the rock grains
 Based on their wettability tendency, the fluid spreading over the pore
surface may be distinguished as wetting phase
 The other fluids may be referred to as nonwetting phase
 In general, subsurface rocks prefer to be wetted by liquids instead of
gases
 More specifically, reservoir rocks are either oil-wet or water-wet

10
Wettability and Contact Angle

 Degree of wettability varies substantially

 The degree of wettability is controlled by the contact angle
 Based on the numerical value of contact angle, hydrocarbon reservoirs
are classified as
 Strongly water wet, 0º < q < 30º
 Moderately water wet, 30º < q < 75º
 Neutrally wet, 75º < q < 105º
 Moderately Oil wet, 105º < q < 150º
 Strongly Oil wet, 150º < q < 180º

11
Wettability and Contact Angle

 Contact angle is determined by the interfacial tensions

 between solid surface and wetting fluid
 between solid surface and non-wetting fluid

 between wetting fluid and non-wetting fluids

 Consider a water-wet rock surface in communication with water and oil

as shown in next figure

12
Wettability and Contact Angle

sow

Oil
q
Water
sso ssw
ssw

13
Wettability and Contact Angle

 Under equilibrium conditions, sum of the forces is equal to zero

 𝜎𝑠𝑜 − 𝜎𝑠𝑤 − 𝜎𝑜𝑤 cos 𝜃 = 0
 Rearranging
 cos 𝜃 = 𝜎𝑠𝑜 − 𝜎𝑠𝑤 /𝜎𝑜𝑤
 Taking inverse cosine of the expression above
 𝜃 = arccos [ 𝜎𝑠𝑜 − 𝜎𝑠𝑤 /𝜎𝑜𝑤 ]

14
Wettability and Contact Angle

 Wettability plays a significant role in the distribution of fluid saturations

in porous media
 If the reservoir rock is oil wetted then oil phase covers the internal
surfaces of pores and forms a thin film around the individual rock grains
 In the reservoir, oil is the continuous phase and water is the
discontinuous phase
 Typically, in oil-wet systems, residual oil saturation to water flooding is
higher

15
Wettability and Contact Angle

 If reservoir rock is water-wet then water

 forms a thin film around rock surface,
 prevents the contact between oil and rock surface

 establishes a continuous phase

 Next figure illustrates the distribution of oil and water phases inside the
pore network in case of water-wet and oil-wet systems

16
Fluid Distribution in Water Wet and Oil Wet Rocks
Water wet Oil wet

Grain Oil Water

17
4.2 Wettability and capillary pressure
Capillary Pressure

 In reservoir rocks bearing oil and water phases, the pressure in the oil
phase is different from the pressure in the water phase
 This pressure difference is due to
 immiscibility between the fluids
 wettability preference

 interfacial forces

 capillary nature of pore sizes

19
Capillary Pressure

 Historically, it has been assumed that, in subsurface reservoir rocks,

water is the wetting phase and oil is the non-wetting phase
 Let po and pw denote the oil phase pressure and water phase pressure
 Capillary pressure is the difference between pressures in the oil and
water phases
 𝑝𝑐 = 𝑝𝑜 − 𝑝𝑤
 When the rock is water wet, the capillary pressure is a positive quantity

20
Capillary Pressure

 In oil-wet rocks, oil phase pressure is lower than water phase pressure,
hence, capillary pressure as defined previously yields negative values
 It may be better to define the capillary pressure as the difference
between the pressure in the non-wetting phase (pnon-wet) and the
pressure in wetting phase (pwet) as expressed below
 𝑝𝑐 = 𝑝𝑛𝑜𝑛−𝑤𝑒𝑡 − 𝑝𝑤𝑒𝑡
 The last definition yields positive capillary pressures
 Capillary pressure is a strong function of saturation

21
Module 5
Lab session: Porosity, Saturations,
Wettability, and Capillary pressure
Module Outline
5.1 Porosity measurements on cores
5.2 Saturation measurement with Dean-Stark distillation
5.3 Contact angle measurement and wettability estimation
5.4 Measurement of capillary pressure

23
Learning Objectives
• Measure porosity of actual core samples
• Use Dean-Stark distillation to estimate fluid saturations
• Measure contact angle of oil and water on reservoir rock sample
• Measure capillary pressure between oil and water

24
Module 6
Absolute and Relative Permeability
Module Outline
6.1 Darcy’s Law and absolute permeability
6.1.1 Darcy’s Law
6.1.2 Units of permeability
6.1.3 Differential form of Darcy’s Equation
6.1.4 Pressure distribution in 1D porous media
6.1.5 Superficial and actual velocity
6.1.6 Analogy of Darcy’s Law to other flux laws
6.1.7 Compressible flow of gases

26
Module Outline (continued)
6.2 Limitations of Darcy’s Law
6.2.1 Klinkenberg Effect at low pressures
6.2.2 Forchheimer’s Equation for high velocity flow
6.3 Variations of permeability
6.4 Permeability-porosity relationships
6.5 Effective and relative permeabilities
6.5.1 Effective permeability
6.5.2 Relative permeability

27
Learning Objectives
• Explain Darcy’s Law
• Interpret permeability based on Darcy’s Law
• Describe units of permeability
• Apply permeability unit conversions
• Calculate pressure distribution in 1D porous media
• Differentiate between superficial and actual velocities
• Recognize the analogy between Darcy’s Law and other flux laws
• Recognize deviations from Darcy’s Law at low pressure and high
velocity

28
Learning Objectives (continued)
• Interpret variations of permeability
• Recognize permeability-porosity relationships
• Construct permeability-porosity cross-plot
• Define effective and relative permeabilities
• Determine end point permeabilities
• Interpret relative permeability-saturation curves

29
6.1 Darcy’s Law and permeability
Permeability of Porous Rocks
 Permeability is one of the most important properties of porous media
 Permeability is defined as the ability of a porous rock to transmit fluids
flowing through its pore space
 A rock must have a well connected pore network across its domain to
exhibit any permeability
 Permeability is an empirical property derived from experimental
observations
 Darcy’s Law is the defining relationship for permeability

31
6.1.1 Darcy’s Law
Permeability of Porous Rocks and Darcy’s Law
 When the velocity is relatively low, the fluid flow through the porous
medium is characterized by Darcy’s law
 Darcy’s law is based on the experimental observations
 In 1856, Henry Darcy investigated water flow through sand filters
 Consider the experimental setup shown in next figure
 An incompressible fluid such as water flows through a sand pack
 Fluid flow takes place under steady state conditions
 Fluid flow is one dimensional
 Gravitational forces are negligible

33
Darcy’s Law for Incompressible Fluid Flow

p1 p2
Dp

q q

A
L

34
Permeability of Porous Rocks

 Run multiple experiments across a one dimensional linear sand pack

 Darcy observed that the flow rate across a linear porous rock is
controlled by the following parameters
 Pressure drop across the porous medium
 Cross sectional area normal to flow direction

 Length of porous medium

 Viscosity of fluid

 A parameter pertaining to nature of porous media

35
Permeability of Porous Rocks

 q = volumetric flow rate

 p1 = inlet pressure
 p2 = outlet pressure
 Dp = p1 – p2 = pressure drop across porous medium
 L = length of porous medium
 m = fluid viscosity
 A = cross sectional area perpendicular to flow directions
 Investigate the relationship among q, Dp, L, A, and m

36
Permeability of Porous Rocks

 Flow rate is directly proportional to pressure drop, 𝑞 ∝ ∆𝑝

 Flow rate is directly proportional to cross sectional area, 𝑞 ∝ 𝐴
 Flow rate is reciprocally proportional to length, 𝑞 ∝ 1/𝐿
 Flow rate is reciprocally proportional to the viscosity of fluid, 𝑞 ∝ 1/𝜇
 The proportionality relationships above may all be combined
 𝑞 ∝ 𝐴∆𝑝/𝜇𝐿
 Flow rate is controlled by flow group ADp/mL irrespective of individual
values of four parameters

37
Permeability of Porous Rocks

 A series of experiments
 Measure q and flow group ADp/mL
 Plot q vs ADp/mL on a Cartesian plot
 A straight line passing through origin
 When there is no pressure drop across the linear porous medium, there
cannot possibly be any flow through porous medium
 Straight line should have an intercept value of zero

38
Darcy’s Law for Incompressible Fluid Flow

Slope = k

A Dp / m L

39
Permeability of Porous Rocks

 The linear relationship between q and ADp/mL may be expressed in the

form of the equation for a straight line
 k = slope of the straight line
 𝑞 = 𝑘 𝐴∆𝑝/𝜇𝐿
 Proportionality constant k reflects the characteristics of porous media
 k is a property of the porous rock
 The proportionality constant k of q vs ADp/mL relationship is referred to
as permeability
 𝑞 = 𝑘 𝐴∆𝑝/𝜇𝐿 is known as Darcy’s law

40
6.1.2 Units of permeability
Unit for Permeability
 In the honor of the pioneering work presented by Henry Darcy,
permeability is measured in the basic unit of darcy
 Symbol d is used to denote darcy
 Permeability is calculated from Darcy’s eq.
 𝑘 = 𝑞𝜇𝐿/𝐴∆𝑝
 q in cc/s, m in cp, L in cm, A in cm2, Dp in atm, and k in d
 A porous rock with a length of 1 cm and an area of 1 cm2 possesses a
permeability of 1 darcy when a fluid with 1 cp viscosity flows at a rate
of 1 cc/s under a pressure drop of 1 atm

42
Unit for Permeability

 𝑘 = 𝑞𝜇𝐿/𝐴∆𝑝
cm3 /s cp cm cm2 ∙cp
 darcy = =
cm2 atm atm∙s

43
Dimension of Permeability

 q in ( L3 /t )
 m in ( m/Lt )
 L in ( L )
 A in ( L2 )
 Dp in (m/Lt2 )
𝑞 L3 /t 𝜇 m/Lt 𝐿 L L3 m L L t2
 𝑘= =𝑘 = 𝑘 L2
𝐴 L2 ∆𝑝 m/Lt2 t L t L2 m
 Permeability has a dimension of length-squared, same as area

44
Units for Permeability

 In SI unit system, permeability unit is m2

 When measuring in m2, we obtain very small permeability values
 In SI units, better to express permeability in mm2 (micrometer-squared)
 Unit conversion factors
 1 darcy = 0.986923 mm2 = 9.86923×10-9 cm2 = 9.86923×10-13 m2 =
1.062×10-11 ft2
 1 darcy  1 mm2 = 1×10-12 m2

45
Units for Permeability

 One darcy corresponds to a very high permeability

 Most reservoir rocks exhibits permeability values lower or much lower
than one darcy
 Subsurface rocks may display permeability values in the order of
millidarcy (md), microdarcy (md), or nanodarcy (hd)

 1 d = 1,000 md = 1×106 md = 1×109 hd

46
Darcy’s Equation in Field Units – Liquid Flow

 Darcy’s equation is in cgs unit system

 Darcy’s equation in the oilfield units through unit conversion
𝐴 𝑑𝑝
 𝑞 = −1.127 × 10−3 𝑘
𝜇 𝑑𝑥
−3 𝑘 𝑑𝑝
 𝑢 = −1.127 × 10
𝜇 𝑑𝑥
 q = volumetric flow rate, RB/D (reservoir barrels per day)
 A = cross sectional area normal to flow directions, ft2
 k = permeability, md (millidarcy)

47
Darcy’s Equation in Field Units – Liquid Flow

 m = fluid viscosity, cp
 p = pressure, psia
 x = location, ft
 dp/dx = pressure gradient, psia/ft
 u = superficial fluid velocity, RB/D/ft2

48
Darcy’s Equation in Field Units – Gas Flow

 When we deal with gas flow, the flow rate is typically measured in unit
of cuft/D and superficial velocity is expressed in unit ft/D
𝐴 𝑑𝑝
 𝑞 = −6.328 × 10−3 𝑘
𝜇 𝑑𝑥
−3 𝑘 𝑑𝑝
 𝑢 = −6.328 × 10
𝜇 𝑑𝑥
 q = volumetric gas flow rate, cuft /D (cubic foot per day)
 u = superficial gas fluid velocity, ft/D

49
Permeability – Example 1

 A set of flow experiments on a linear core

 d = 2.54 cm and L = 15.24 cm
 Water is pumped through the core; m = 1 cp
 In each experiment, only the flow rate is changed
 q and corresponding Dp for each experiment in Table 1
 Construct a Cartesian plot of q vs ADp/mL
 Predict permeability

50
Permeability – Example 1

Table 1 – Test data for Example 1

Test # q Dp
() (cc/s) (psia)
1 0.1 70
2 0.2 140
3 0.3 195
4 0.4 260
5 0.5 340
6 0.6 410
7 0.7 470
8 0.8 520
9 0.9 600
10 1.0 675

51
Permeability – Example 1

 𝐴 = 𝜋𝑑 2 /4 = 3.1415926 × 2.542 /4 = 5.067 cm2

 𝐴/𝜇𝐿 = 5.067/ 1 × 15.24 = 0.333
 Flow group ADp/mL for Test #1 is
 𝐴∆𝑝/𝜇𝐿 = 0.333 × 4.762 = 1.5833
 The rest of the calculated results are tabulated in Table 2
 A Cartesian plot of q vs ADp/mL is displayed in next figure

52
Permeability – Example 1
Table 2 – q vs flow group ADp/mL for Example 1
Test # q Dp ADp/mL
() (cc/s) (atm) (cm×atm/cp)
1 0.1 4.76 1.5833
2 0.2 9.52 3.1665
3 0.3 13.27 4.4105
4 0.4 17.69 5.8807
5 0.5 23.13 7.6901
6 0.6 27.89 9.2734
7 0.7 31.97 10.6305
8 0.8 35.37 11.7614
9 0.9 40.82 13.5708
10 1.0 45.92 15.2672

53
Permeability – Example 1

54
Permeability – Example 1

 A well defined straight line on q vs ADp/mL plot

 Slope = k = 0.0661 d
 Converting from darcies to millidarcies,
 k = 66.1 md
 When fitting the measured lab data, the straight line is forced to go
through the origin

55
6.1.3 Differential form of Darcy’s Equation
Differential Form of Darcy’s Equation
 𝑞 = 𝑘 𝐴∆𝑝/𝜇𝐿 , 𝑘 = 𝑞𝜇𝐿/𝐴∆𝑝
 Permeability is a positive quantity; k ≥ 0
 Darcy’s law assumes that flow rate, length, and pressure drop are all
positive quantities; q > 0, L > 0, Dp > 0
 Flow is from left face to right face
 If the flow rate is positive when fluid flows from left to right then it has
to be a negative quantity when the flow direction is reversed
 Fluid flow in subsurface formations is generally 3 dimensional
 In multidimensional flow cases, we need to choose a coordinate system

57
Differential Form of Darcy’s Equation

 Generalize Darcy’s law and extend its applicability

 Redefine Darcy’s equation with respect to a coordinate system and
express it in a differential form
 Consider the linear core sample shown in next figure
 The coordinate system is located at the inlet face on the left
 The core extends from x = 0 to x = L
 Fluid flow from left face to right face is positive
 Fluid flow from right face to left face is negative
 Pressure decreases along the core axis

58
Differential Form of Darcy’s Equation

p1

p(x)
Dp = p(x) - p(x+Dx)
p(x+Dx)
L = (x+Dx) – x = Dx
Dx p2
q>0
0 x x+D x L

59
Differential Form of Darcy’s Equation

 The fact that pressure declines while distance along the core increases
has to be incorporated into Darcy’s law
 Focus on the flow of fluid from point x to point x+Dx
 The pressures at points x+Dx and x are p(x+Dx) and p(x), respectively
 The pressure drop and distance traveled are
 ∆𝑝 = 𝑝 𝑥 − 𝑝 𝑥 + ∆𝑥
 𝐿 = 𝑥 + ∆𝑥 − 𝑥 = ∆𝑥
 Substituting eqs. above into Darcy’s law

60
Differential Form of Darcy’s Equation

𝐴 ∆𝑝 𝐴 𝑝 𝑥 −𝑝 𝑥+∆𝑥
 𝑞=𝑘 =𝑘
𝜇 𝐿 𝜇 ∆𝑥
 This eq. can be re-casted as follows
𝐴 𝑝 𝑥+∆𝑥 −𝑝 𝑥
 𝑞 = −𝑘
𝜇 ∆𝑥
 Taking the limit of eq. above as Dx tends to zero
𝐴 𝑝 𝑥+∆𝑥 −𝑝 𝑥
 lim 𝑞 = −𝑘 lim
∆𝑥→0 𝜇 ∆𝑥→0 ∆𝑥
 Evaluate the limit on the left-hand-side

61
Differential Form of Darcy’s Equation

𝑝 𝑥+∆𝑥 −𝑝 𝑥 𝑑𝑝
 lim =
∆𝑥→0 ∆𝑥 𝑑𝑥
 Darcy’s law in differential form becomes
𝐴 𝑑𝑝
 𝑞 = −𝑘
𝜇 𝑑𝑥
 dp/dx is the pressure gradient
 Negative sign is due to location of the coordinate system and choice of
the notation for the flow direction
 If the coordinate system is moved to the outlet face on the right then
the negative sign is not needed

62
6.1.4 Pressure distribution in 1D porous media
Pressure Distribution Along Linear Porous Media

 Darcy’s equation enables us to compute total pressure drop

 ∆𝑝 = 𝑞𝜇𝐿/𝑘𝐴
 In some cases, we may need to compute pressure distribution along the
porous rock
 p(x) = ?

64
Pressure Distribution Along Linear Porous Media

p1

p(x) = ?

p2
q
0 x L

65
Pressure Distribution Along Linear Porous Media

 We can predict pressure distribution along the linear porous rock by

integrating the differential form of Darcy’s equation
𝑑𝑝 𝑞𝜇
 − =
𝑑𝑥 𝑘𝐴
 Need a boundary conditions to solve the equation above for pressure
distribution
 Either inlet or outlet pressure must be known
 x = 0, p(0) = p1
 x = L, p(L) = p2

66
Pressure Distribution Along Linear Porous Media

 Assume that we have x = 0, p(0) = p1

 Rearranging differential form of Darcy’s equation
𝑞𝜇
 𝑑𝑝 = − 𝑑𝑥
𝑘𝐴
 Integrating
𝑞𝜇
 ‫ = 𝑝𝑑 ׬‬− 𝑘𝐴
‫ 𝑥𝑑 ׬‬+ 𝐶
𝑞𝜇
 𝑝 𝑥 =𝐶− 𝑥
𝑘𝐴
 Now, we use the boundary condition to determine integral constant C

67
Pressure Distribution Along Linear Porous Media

 x = 0, p(0) = p1
𝑞𝜇
 𝑝 0 =𝐶− 0 = 𝐶 = 𝑝1
𝑘𝐴
 Substituting 𝐶 = 𝑝1 in the solution
𝑞𝜇
 𝑝 𝑥 = 𝑝1 − 𝑥
𝑘𝐴
 The solution above shows that pressure varies linearly with the distance
along porous rock

68
Pressure Distribution Along Linear Porous Media

 If the boundary condition at the outlet is given

 x = L, p(L) = p2
𝑞𝜇
 𝑝 L =𝐶− L = 𝑝2
𝑘𝐴
𝑞𝜇
 𝐶= 𝑝2 + L
𝑘𝐴
𝑞𝜇
 𝑝 𝑥 = 𝑝2 + 𝐿−𝑥
𝑘𝐴

69
Pressure Distribution – Example 2

 Reconsider the data given in Example 1

 Use Test #1
 q = 0.1 cc/s, p1 = 5.76 atm, m = 1 cp, L = 15.24 cm,
 A = 5.067 cm2, k = 0.0661 d
 Estimate pressure distribution along the core sample
𝑞𝜇 0.1×1
 𝑝 𝑥 = 𝑝1 − 𝑥 = 5.76 − 𝑥 = 5.76 − 0.299 𝑥
𝑘𝐴 0.0661×5.067
 x = 1 cm,
 𝑝 𝑥 = 5.76 − 0.299 = 5.461 atm

70
Pressure Distribution – Example 2
x p(x)
(cm) (atm)
0.00 5.760
1.00 5.461
2.00 5.163
3.00 4.864
4.00 4.566
5.00 4.267
6.00 3.969
7.00 3.670
8.00 3.371
9.00 3.073
10.00 2.774
11.00 2.476
12.00 2.177
13.00 1.879
14.00 1.580
15.00 1.281
15.24 1.210

71